{"548901":{"#nid":"548901","#data":{"type":"news","title":"College of Computing Using Google Funding to Close CS Diversity Gap","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s no secret that female, African American, Hispanic, Native American, and Alaskan Native students are underrepresented in computer science in Georgia and across the country.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn fact, according to \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/home.cc.gatech.edu\/ice-gt\/594\u0022\u003Eongoing data analysis\u003C\/a\u003E by Barbara Ericson, director of computing outreach for the Institute for Computing Education (ICE) for the Georgia Tech College of Computing, \u201cThe disparity here is so great that in 2015 10 U.S. states had fewer than 10 girls take the Advanced Placement \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/apstudent.collegeboard.org\/apcourse\/ap-computer-science-a\u0022\u003E(AP) Computer Science (CS) A course\u003C\/a\u003E exam while 23 states had fewer than 10 black students take the exam.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn an interview with the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/bits.blogs.nytimes.com\/2014\/02\/02\/techs-diversity-problem-is-apparent-as-early-as-high-school\/\u0022\u003ENew York Times\u003C\/a\u003E late last year, Ericson said working to solve the tech industry\u2019s gender and racial diversity gap is important \u201cbecause we don\u2019t have enough people studying computer science in the United States to fill the projected number of jobs in the field.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo address this problem and prepare more high school students for computer science careers, the College of Computing established RISE Up 4 CS in 2012.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELeveraging \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.google.com\/edu\/resources\/programs\/google-rise-awards\/\u0022\u003EGoogle RISE Award\u003C\/a\u003E funding, the RISE Up 4 CS program offers twice-a-week webinars and monthly in person sessions at Georgia Tech to prepare underrepresented students to succeed in taking the APCS A course exam and class. For the webinars, students use a free interactive e-book developed by Ericson to learn about searching and sorting data, and the fundamentals of JAVA.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESince Rise Up 4 CS began, each year a new record number of underrepresented students have passed the AP CS A exam. \u201cWhile we can\u0027t claim that the record number is all due to RISE Up 4 CS, several students have told us they wouldn\u0027t have passed the exam without it,\u201d said Ericson.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EPrepping students for success this summer\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWith its third consecutive Google RISE Award, this year the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ECollege of Computing\u003C\/a\u003E and RISE UP 4 CS are supporting two summer day camps for eligible students enrolled in an AP CS A course during the upcoming 2016-2017 school year.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStudents attending the summer day camps will create games, 3D movies, and picture manipulation programs while they learn the fundamental concepts, skills, and algorithms. \u201cWe want to empower these students with the tools they\u2019ll need to be successful in these challenging courses,\u201d said Ericson.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe College of Computing is partnering with area educational institutions to host the weeklong camps. The first session will be held July 18 through 22 at Holy Innocents\u2019 Episcopal School. The second sessions begins July 25 at Morehouse College and runs through July 29.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEligible students can \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.surveymonkey.com\/r\/2016StudentRec\u0022\u003Eapply online\u003C\/a\u003E for either of the two, five-day camp sessions. The camps are free and include lunch and a snack for students. Each camp has a maximum of 20 students.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Google RISE Awards is an annual grant program for informal education organizations around the world that promote computer science for underrepresented K-12\/pre-university age youth.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The College of Computing at Georgia Tech is working to close the diversity gap that exists in computer science"}],"uid":"32045","created_gmt":"2016-06-28 16:29:36","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:22:00","author":"Ben Snedeker","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-06-28T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2016-06-28T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"548911":{"id":"548911","type":"image","title":"Diversity in CS","body":null,"created":"1467316800","gmt_created":"2016-06-30 20:00:00","changed":"1475895343","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:55:43","alt":"Diversity in CS","file":{"fid":"92587","name":"istock_000006762221small.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/istock_000006762221small.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/istock_000006762221small.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":532290,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/istock_000006762221small.jpg?itok=dLQ0KSmV"}}},"media_ids":["548911"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBen Snedeker, News \u0026amp; Media Relations Manager\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["albert.snedeker@cc.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}